


Being Scared Keeps Us Alive

by Heere_I_Go_Again



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Bisexual Jeremy Heere, Gay Michael Mell, I had an Idea and so I wrote it, I will go down with this au, It's terrible but we're trying, M/M, Spider!jere, Spiderman AU, Supervillain Squip, boyf riends - Freeform, no one is straight, please take this away from me, spiderman!jeremy, will add more eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2020-03-06 17:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18856009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heere_I_Go_Again/pseuds/Heere_I_Go_Again
Summary: Jeremy's life seemed normal. Until it wasn't. How is he supposed to deal with the fact that he snuck into a lab and doesn't know how to deal with the consequences of being bit by a radioactive spider?Or... Jeremy becomes Spiderman and has no idea how to survive.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I couldn't help myself. I love this musical and superheroes and Spiderman!Jeremy is legitimately my spirit animal. It's my first fic so let me know how it is!

Another field trip to the world renowned Tam Industries. It's not like they hadn't been there multiple times since it opened three years ago. No one was too surprised when Mr. Kelley told them that he had planned this trip last week, but no one was too excited either. But they were all there, crammed into the smallest room they could fit a group of high school students. Jeremy groaned as Dr. Tam, the genius himself, prepared for his long speech about the importance of science and invention that they had all heard in years prior. He glanced over at Michael just in time to see the boy slip out of the back of the room. He searched to make sure no one was paying attention to him before sneaking out himself. 

"Michael, wait up," he whispered at his friend who had already made it halfway down the hall, "where are you going?" In all honesty, it didn't matter where he was going, Jeremy would follow him anywhere. They'd been best friends for twelve years so, yeah, he wasn't going to let Michael sneak out and explore without him.

Michael turned around as he heard a voice behind him and grinned, "Figured we've got all day in this place, might as well make it worth my time and enjoy it with my Player 2." The truth was, he hated science but he knew that, secretly, Jeremy was the biggest science nerd he'd met. Not that anyone else knew that, but Michael had known Jeremy for so long that he knew practically everything about him. All of his fears and anxiety to the corny jokes that could make him smile even in the darkest situations. So of course he knew that, no matter how many times they took a field trip to this place, Jeremy would never pass up the chance to explore every up-and-coming project that was in progress.

Jeremy felt a small smile grow, "Guess that would be okay. Y-you know they're working on this top secret project that's supposed to change the world. Maybe we should go check it out." He grabbed Michael's arm and pulled him onward.

They went on exploring for about an hour, looking at all of the upcoming technology and designs that Michael didn't understand except for the bits and pieces that Jeremy would try and explain to him. They got to the end of a hallway before Michael adamantly decided that they would not enter the next room as all he could see was a tank with the world's most horrific spider in it.

"Micha-" He whined as he pulled on his friends sleeve to try and get him to go explore the room with him, "come on. It's just a spider. It's in a whole tank too. I'm sure it's perfectly s-safe."

Michael still wasn't convinced so he just shook his head and stood his ground, even as much as turning around so that he didn't have to look at the spider giving him the creeps. Jeremy got the hint and slipped in the room by himself and looked around. He tried to look through as quickly as possible so he could get back to his friend standing in the hall, but he still wanted to see everything.

He ended up watching some video showing the progress they were making with the spiders, not that it was giving any indication as to what the experiment actually was. It only described how the spiders had somehow evolved. It was during this that he felt something grace his neck. He yelped and jumped as he reached for the back of his neck where he found all that was left of the phantom touch. A small, but growing, red bite. Needless to say, he started to freak out. Jeremy dropped to the floor and, seeing the small blue and red spider scurrying away, started shrieking, thoughts stuck on the fact that he was going to die of a spider bite from an experiment he shouldn't even know about. 

"Jere! What the hell is going on in here?" Michael burst in the room to see his best friend curled up on the ground. He ran over, carefully eyeing the tank that should have still held the experimental arachnid, until he reached Jeremy and carefully rested his hand on his shoulder to try and calm his friend down. Thankfully, the teen did quiet down but he was still huddled around himself before he was able to catch his breath and look up at his worried friend. "Jeremy it's okay. Breathe," Michael ran his hand along his friend's back until the boy had calmed down enough to sit up and breathe normally once more. 

"S-sorry Micha I didn't mean ta scare you but-" he paused, unsure how good of an idea it was to tell even his closest friend about the spider bite, "I-I just thought I saw a spi-ider." He forced a small grin to lighten the mood.

Michael returned the smile and laughed, worry easing away if just by a bit. Something may have happened but he knew Jeremy would tell him when they got home.

Only Jeremy didn't. And that spider bite would end up changing him more than he could have ever imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Any comments are so so welcome! Let me know what you think!!!  
> More to come!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fast forward a couple months and it's basically the average life of a New Jersey teenager. Angst, school, bullies, and, you know, a superhero just trying his best. Jeremy is still trying to find a balance of his two worlds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen y'all I'm trying. I realized that I freaking love description too much so sorry.

[6 months later]

Jeremy woke up stiff and sore, groaning as he rolled over to turn off his alarm. It had been a rough night to say the least. Not that any patrol night was easy, but he always hated the ones that ended with more of him bruised than not. He was just thankful he hadn't had to deal with any broken bones yet because he had no idea how he would explain that to his dad or Michael. It was hard enough to brush off the various cuts and bruises as clumsiness as it was. 

He finally got out of bed, his snoozed alarm once again blaring to warn him that he was going to be late. He took a glance in the mirror to take in the damage. It was as bad as he expected. His face was littered with bruises as well as his stomach. He'd have to get some concealer from Christine at school but he would still have to come up with a good excuse for Michael on the way there because his friend would undoubtedly ask about it.

After quickly throwing on his favorite blue cardigan and running his hands through his hair to get rid of the bedhead, Jeremy shoved his suit into the bottom of the backpack and ran out of the house to Michael's cruiser. He put up a sleepy smile as he slid into the car and melted into the seat. His smile was returned tensely as his worried friend took in his injuries. 

"Jere, dude, what happened?" Michael raised his hand up to brush against a particularly dark bruise under his left eye as Jeremy flinched away, mumbling some excuse about tripping down the stairs. Sure, both knew it was a load of crap but Michael didn't push any further. It's not like this was the first time it had happened. So, he sighed and decided to just change the subject since he knew there would be no more said about it. "So anyway, did hear about Spiderman last night? He stopped these guys who were robbing a bank. It was totally awesome!"

"Yeah I bet it was." The truth was, Jeremy remembered that night a lot differently than the news portrayed it. He got his ass handed to him before the police showed up and stopped the guys. He may have helped stop them but his part was more in the distraction than the actual stopping. But he didn't want to ruin Michael's view on Spiderman so he'd let him believe whatever he wanted. It was worth seeing Michael's face light up whenever the hero was brought into a conversation. He'd do anything to keep that face smiling. 

"Y'know. I started a blog about him," Michael started carefully, gauging his friend's reaction, he continued, "People need to know about what he's doing. I've got like a thousand followers already. This could turn out to be a really big thing for me."

Jeremy tensed, all the ways that this could go wrong flooded through his mind. He had worked so hard these past six months to keep Michael away from this life. How did he still manage to get himself sucked into it? "Micha. You- you can't. What if this ends up getting you hurt? Or- or worse? What if this ends in- in you..." He trailed off, unable to even think about what could happen. "You have to take it down, Michael, you have to." His voice ended up as barely a whisper.

"I can't stop. I won't. I know you don't like him for some reason, Jeremy, but he's a hero. He deserves all the recognition he can get. He doesn't stop going into the danger because he might get hurt so why should I? He'll be there to protect me even if I am in danger. Because that's what he does. He's there when people need them. Unlike-" He cut himself off before finishing the phrase but the message is still received. His friend had been absent lately, like he'd put up a wall that Michael wasn't allowed past.

"Michael, I know. I'm sorry." Unsure of what else to say, he turned to look out the window, realizing they had already gotten to school and were sitting in the school parking lot.

"It's fine." With that, Michael got out of the cruiser and slammed the door, leaving his player 2 to follow silently after him into the school before going separate ways to class.

 

* * *

 

Jeremy was, to put it lightly, not in a great mood. His ride with Michael started off his day pretty badly, not to mention the fact that Christine didn't have any cover-up so everyone in the halls was giving him weird looks.

He was currently sitting in math class, not caring enough to work on the in class assignment they were given. Only thirty more minutes until he got to go to chemistry and make more web fluid, the only part of his day he really cared about at this point. He just had to get through the rest of his day smoothly and he'd be able to go home and catch up on the sleep he'd missed last night. Of course it never went that easy.

Rich Goranski had to be the one sitting next him and he looked like he was just waiting to attack the first person that looked at him wrong.

It's like the universe hated him because he happened to be the one to glance his way for just a second too long.

"Hey, tall-ass what are you looking at? Got something to say to me? Or ya just gonna keep staring at me?" He grabbed Jeremy's shirt, pulling him toward himself while clenching his free hand into a fist. Seemed like the bad day vibes were going around. 

"I- No. I was j-just spacing off. I p-promise." Jeremy flinched, trying to pull himself away from the bully's grip to no avail. He was too tired to give a real effort so he was stuck there with Rich's too warm hand on his collar and brown eyes boring into his own. 

"Yeah you better have been. Just know, next time I catch you staring will be the last time. Got that?" Rich's grip tightened as he flinched slightly before shoving him back into the chair and stalking out of the classroom, not giving a second glance back.

The remaining boy just sat there, so thankful the encounter hadn't escalated that he didn't think much more about it before finally focusing on his math work. Everyone knew Rich could be a little hot-headed sometimes.

He got about three questions in before finally being released and headed to chemistry, by far his best class. He was already a month ahead of the rest of his class so he got to work on his own projects most days. Mainly he worked on making web fluid, secretly of course, with Christine who was also ahead thanks to him.

She found out his secret during a fall play rehearsal when she scared him so badly he jumped up and clung to the wall. This led to her claiming the 'man-in-the-chair' role which included helping Jeremy make the webs in chemistry since she did come up with the superhero identity.

"Jeremy! Are you ready for rehearsal today? Mr. Reyes said we're doing our first full run!" Christine bounded in the room and took a seat at the back lab bench next to him, clearly excited.

Jeremy inwardly groaned and dropped his head onto the table. "Sorry Chris, I don't think I'm gonna make it today. You know I had a rough night and I really just need to sleep." He knew he also needed to talk to Michael but sleep seemed to be calling his name more than any of his responsibilities,

"Oh no. You are not skipping out on us again. You haven't been there at all this week. I don't care if I have to drag you there myself, you're going. I mean it. You're going." She furrowed her brows to emphasize her seriousness.

Jeremy knew she wasn't kidding so he just nodded his head and put his focus on the nylon-like webs he was creating. He would just have to deal with everything later. For now he could just let his mind roam as he mixed chemicals the way he'd done hundreds of times before.

It was all going fine until he felt the familiar tingling on his neck and the fire alarms went off. He sighed as he grabbed his backpack and followed his class out of the room, shooting a look to Christine as if to warn her that this was no fire drill. Something just didn't feel right.

He had a feeling Spiderman was about to make a visit to the school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will actually be plot thickening next chapter. I just had to lay out some of the basic stuff for the story. It will go somewhere I promise. 
> 
> Let me know what you think though!!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not gonna lie, I hate it. But we’re doing our best. I promise it’ll get better! 10/10 I know I’m a bad writer but we’re getting there

For once, Jeremy didn't want to be right. He wanted to be anything but right as he swung into the smoky gym. He wanted the person standing in the middle of the flames to be a surviving student that he needed to rescue even though he knew it wasn't.

Of course he couldn't just have an easy day.

Jeremy was so stuck in his thoughts that he missed the ball of fire soaring towards him. It just missed him but hit the web he was hanging on to send him plummeting to the ground. He landed a little unsteadily before facing the attacker as he stood up and dusted himself off.

He tried to make out what they looked like but their hood was up, casting a dark shadow over their face in contrast with the flickering flames around them. Jeremy guessed he would just have to figure out who it was after he stopped them.

"Hey there hot-head. Why don't we just take a chill pill and talk for a bit, okay?" He hollered to hooded man in front of him.

A streak of fire launched in his direction was the only answer he received. 

He jumped and flipped up to cling to the side of the bleachers. "Alright, not into talking. I can respect that. How about that chilling though? Don't want to destroy this nice school do we?" 

He managed to avoid the next flame thrown but was too busy checking the melting bleachers to see the one thrown directly after it. It hit his right thigh and couldn't help but yelp as he felt the fire sear through his suit and burn his skin. He clutched his leg before webbing out of the gym to get his bearings. Jeremy knew he was running away but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He had to get out of there 

A pained hiss escaped Jeremy’s mouth as he leaned against a locker, trying to figure out a plan of how to stop the hooded villain.

Scanning the hallway, he really wished the school had updated their fire safety sometime in the last decade but he guessed he could never be that lucky. It seemed the sprinklers still hadn’t gone off even though the school was quickly filling with flames and smoke.

He had the beginnings of a plan when a crash in the gym reminded him of the urgency of the situation. No time like the present to get things going. He was just about to execute his plan when he caught sight of a familiar red hoodie hiding behind the lockers. His heart stopped as he saw the awestruck face gazing at him.

"Mich-" He just barely caught himself, "Kid you've gotta get out of here. What are you doing? Leave!" Jeremy yelled as he kept looking back toward the increasingly loud crashes coming nearer. 

Michael just stood there, phone in hand, frozen in fear or awe or maybe both. He didn't think he would be able to actually catch Spiderman in action, much less have an interaction with his hero. He was so entranced that he nearly fell over when Spiderman shoved him out of the way of a burning flame that narrowly missed both of their heads.

"I told you, you have to go. Please." Jeremy begged before turning his attention fully to the hooded figure. He was able to web them against the wall, near completely covering the attacker in webs, and seemingly had the him subdued as the hero slowly limped over to uncover their identity. Maybe this would be over sooner than he thought.

Just as he was about to reach the villain, however, the webs holding them in place and a flaming hand was pressed to the hero’s chest, burning another hole straight through his suit and searing the skin. A scream escaped his mouth as he collapsed on the ground and curled around himself, unable to move as the fiery pain consumed him.

Jeremy was scared out of his mind and was out of ideas. He squeezed his eyes shut to wait for the flames to fully envelop him, all thought of survival disappearing.

The fire never came, though.

As the man in the flames, Flare as Michael would later name him, raised his hand to deliver his final fiery blow, Michael did the one thing he could think of at the time. He drew the attention to himself. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he just stood there while Spiderman died. He threw his bottle of Crystal Pepsi at the villain whose head shot up to lock eyes with Michael before stalking over to the scared teen. 

A cruel grin was all that could be seen on his darkened face as he spoke with a familiar voice, “Aw Michael. Trying to save your hero friend are you? Too bad nothing you do can stop me.” 

Michael stumbled back, trying to understand how this person knew him. He was so deep in his own thoughts that he didn’t realize he had been backed against the wall before it was too late. This was it for him. 

“Michael, no...” Jeremy’s small voice could barely be heard as he laid there, curled on the ground. All he could do was aim a web up at the unactivated sprinkler and hope that somehow it worked. He fired and a web latched on before he pulled the strand down. The flames quickly died down as water poured out onto the trio. 

Flare, quickly realizing his powers had been stopped, took off running out of the school before he could get caught by the hero and wannabe sidekick. “See ya around, Spiderman. Better hope you’re just as lucky next time.” With that, he was gone, too fast for either to be able to stop him.

Jeremy stayed on the ground, enjoying how the water soothed the burning of his wounds, as Michael ran over to him. 

“Spiderman. You saved my life! I can’t believe you just saved my life.” He carefully stretched a hand out to help the hero up.

Jeremy gave a small grin under the mask as he took the hand, groaning softly as he stood up. “Well you did save mine first. Just next time, leave when I tell you to.” He gave a wave before shooting a web to the end of the wall, “Thanks again for all the help, Michael.” 

With that he left Michael alone in the hallway, still trying to determine whether this was a dream or not. Only one thought ran through his mind, he had to tell Jeremy about this. He didn’t care that Jeremy wasn’t a fan, he had to tell his friend what happened. He remembered he was still holding his phone and sent his friend a text telling him that he was coming over after school to tell him everything that had just happened.

Jeremy, however, was in the bathroom he had priorly stashed his backpack and clothes, coughing and shaking as he pulled off his mask and slid to sit on the dirty floor. He knew he should get out of the rest of his suit before someone came in but he could barely move. He should’ve known that sooner or later someone else with powers was going to show up. He shouldn’t have been so cocky. At least Michael didn’t get hurt. Oh god, Michael. Why did Michael have to be there? What if Jeremy hadn’t hit the sprinkler in time?

He didn’t realize he was crying until he saw the dripping tears splash in the puddle he had made with his still wet suit. He sniffled and did his best to wipe away the remaining tears before peeling the suit off and carefully putting on his clothes. He knew he was on the brink of a complete meltdown but he had to get out of the school before the police found him and started asking questions.

He shot Christine a text to let her know he wouldn’t be at rehearsal before limping out of the bathroom and sneaking out of the school. He saw Michael’s message and, as much as he wanted to just avoid him and everyone else for the rest of the day, he knew he was going to have to face him sooner or later. He figured sooner would be better anyway so he okayed the plan before heading home to heal before his talk with Michael.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, please I live off of human affirmation so leave a comment if you want. Thank


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit of cute Michael and Jeremy for you guys. They deserve to be happy for a bit before everything goes to shit... I mean. This is totally gonna be a completely happy story.

Jeremy was woken up from a dazed nap as the form of his best friend jumped on top of him. Groaning, he easily shifted the weight off of himself and onto the bed next to him.

"Ugh, did you have to jump on me to wake me up?" He whined as he shoved Michael's smug face in a sad attempt at revenge. He, of course, wasn't as upset as he made himself seem. Sure, his friend had landed directly on his still-healing burns, but having Michael there always made him feel better. Even if he wasn't thrilled with the conversation they were about to have. "You coulda at least made me breakfast first," a grin spread across his face.

"Dude it's like four o'clock. You have to wait until at least midnight before I make breakfast." He easily returned the banter, glad that the hostility earlier that morning had faded. He just hoped it wouldn't return when Jeremy finds out he was front and center for the Spiderman firefight. It was a good thing he planned on a little de-stressing gaming time after the talk. That is, if Jeremy didn’t storm out of his own house first.

Jeremy gave a disappointed sigh before pushing himself up to sit on the bed. "Well since you're not here to feed me, what brings ya over, Mell?" He played dumb, though he knew the answer. He just had to decide how to react to it. He wasn't sure yet. On one hand, Michael did save his life, but he also almost died. Something that Jeremy would really rather not have happen again. But he already knew his player 1 would never give up helping people and doing his Spiderman blog if he could help it. That's just something they had in common.

The other boy looked down at his fidgeting hands and then pulled out his phone, pulling up the most recent video and handing the phone to his friend before pushing play. They sat in silence as they watched Michael’s video of the recent battle, the events still too fresh in both of their minds.

After it ended, silence seemed to engulf the room. Neither really knowing what to say.

"I, uh, I was at the fight between Spiderman and the fire guy," Michael carefully started before rambling on, "I promise I was going to leave. I was just wanted to get a quick look as I was getting out of the school but Spiderman was hurt and I couldn't leave. I saved him and then he saved me like I knew he would. It was amazing, Jere, you should've seen it. It was like a real life video game!" Michael didn't realize he'd gotten increasingly louder as his excitement increased.

Jeremy knew he shouldn't be encouraging Michael for going into the danger, but he couldn't help but smile. Whether from his friend’s excitement or Jeremy's own pride from watching the video he wasn’t sure. He just knew that he had to do whatever he could to let Michael keep doing this while staying safe. After all, this was the most engaged Michael had been with something other than their nightly video games since, well, ever. How could he ask him to give it up again?

He would never admit it, but Jeremy was also kind of loving how much his friend was fanboying over his alter-ego. Any attention from his Player 1 was more than welcomed. He would just have to be extra careful to make sure Michael never had the chance to get hurt again.

“This is amazing. Really. This is super cool! But-” 

“I know what you’re gonna say. It was dumb and dangerous and I shouldn’t have stayed. But Jeremy you weren’t there. You didn’t see how hurt he was. How brave he was even though he thought he might die. And I know you’re probably mad but I can’t stop now.”

The taller boy reached out and grabbed his friend’s hand, “Michael, hey, it’s okay. I- I get it.” And he did, he couldn’t stop being Spiderman either even if he wanted to, which he didn’t. “But I just want you safe. Just promise me you’ll stay out of the fights. Stay as far away from anything dangerous as you can, okay?”

“Okay.” A relieved sigh escaped his mouth as he pulled Jeremy into a tight hug. “Thank you. For being okay with this.” He broke away and sheepishly grinned, a pale blush gracing his face as he turned away. “So, game night? You know we still haven’t beaten Apocalypse of the Damned yet and I brought some weed since your dad’s still gone on his business trip.”

He returned the smile, pushing down the fluttering in his stomach and nodded, “That sounds perfect. I’ll, uh, go get the game set up.”

They spent the rest of the night in a blissful high as they battled virtual zombies together and forgot about their hug. This, of course, didn’t mean they weren’t curled together on a single beanbag. Because that’s just how they were when they were high, crazy cuddly with no one to cling to except each other. At least that’s what they told themselves. 

They went on playing until Michael noticed his Player 2’s unmoving character. Glancing down, he saw his friend curled up against his chest, head buried in Michael’s hoodie. He wished, selfishly, that they could stay like this forever. It would be him and Jeremy against the world. Against angry hordes of zombies instead of dumb teenagers and arguments with each other. 

But they would get through whatever real life threw at them together. Just like always. And someday, Jeremy might even join him with his blog. For now, though, he was content to lay there with his arms wrapped around the sleeping boy, drool slowly soaking into his sweatshirt as Michael himself began to doze off. 

They stayed like that until the sun peaked into the sky and even after, time seemingly frozen just for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Any comments, questions, concerns, or anything are more than welcomed <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized how often I start these chapters with Jeremy waking up. Is this my subconscious telling me I need more sleep? Probably. Am I going to get more sleep? No. But at least Jeremy is because, surprise, this isn’t the last chapter I’m starting with an unconscious Jeremy.

Jeremy woke up with a stiff back but too comfortable and warm to move. So he laid there, keeping his eyes closed as he tried to think about how he ended up in this position, curled around... something. Something? Oh wait that something was Michael.

Jeremy was suddenly very aware of the boy he was wrapped around. He stayed a bit longer, though, just listening to his breathing and feeling the rise and fall of his friend’s chest before carefully untangling himself and checking the time on his phone.

Glancing at the screen, however, he didn’t even notice the time displayed as he saw a mixture of increasingly frantic texts and calls from Christine. She apparently had gotten worried since Jeremy hadn’t contacted her other than his quick message right after school to let her know he was alive. So it was understandable why she was a bit freaked out. 

He read through the messages and found out that she had a big lead on the mysterious fire guy so he figured his time for fun with Michael was over.

With a hollow sigh, he texted her back, agreeing to meet in 20 minutes, and quickly got ready. He wrote Michael a quick note about how he had to make up for missing play rehearsals or whatnot as an excuse and asking him to lock up the house when he leaves. Sometimes Jeremy missed before when all he had to worry about was beating the latest retro video game and sleeping in as late as possible on Saturdays. Not waking up at half past 7 to leave his best friend so that he could go talk about how to stop the latest psychopath in town. 

Still, he loved this new life and wouldn't give it up for anything. He just wished he didn’t have to lie to his best friend all the time. If there was a way to keep both himself and everyone around him safe then maybe he would be able to tell him the truth. But the truth was, right now he was just winging it and it terrified him to think of putting Michael in danger.

Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he grabbed his backpack and hurried to Christine’s house, not nearly prepared to deal with the news she had for him.

***

When he arrived at the house, he was not expecting the first thing to happen to be Christine pulling him into a hug bigger than he could’ve imagined she could give. The thing about Christine was that she expressed every emotion to the fullest, especially when she was worried. And right now, anyone watching could guess she was terrified for the boy’s safety.

“Jeremy! Are you okay?” She quickly asked after releasing him to breathe. She received a small nod in return, as Jeremy didn’t trust himself to verbally respond in a way that wouldn’t worry her.

A nod was apparently all she needed before she slapped his arm and growled, “Then why didn’t you let me know that earlier? Jeremiah Heere do you know how worried I’ve been? Don’t you ever do that again! I mean it Jeremy! Next time you do this I will come to your house and break in if I have to so I know you’re not dead!”

Jeremy’s eyes shot wide open in shock before mumbling, “Sorry. I, uh, I was with Michael.” He just hoped that explained his lack of communication enough for her to let it go. 

Thankfully, it seemed to be enough for now as Christine just gave a frowning huff and pulled him inside. “Well, while you busy getting stoned with your fanboy, I was figuring out who our super villain is. Here, check this out,” she continued dragging him into her room until she let go to open her sticker-covered laptop. “I overheard Jenna talking about it after school and you know how Jenna knows everything that seems to happen, right? Well she told Jake that she saw Rich running into the gym mumbling to himself right before the fire alarms went off. She thinks he did it. Which, I mean, is crazy right? How does she figure all this stuff out? It’s like she’s everywhere at once which obviously isn’t real but still.” 

“Christine! Focus. Back on Rich.” Jeremy interrupted her flow of thoughts, wanting to know if this was true or not. Sure, Rich was a bully but he never would have thought he would go this far. 

“Right. Where was I? Sorry. Anyway, so I managed to sneak into the security room, you know, since the janitor lets me have the keys to the building so I can get here early to set up for drama class and rehearsals, and I looked at the video footage. And Jeremy it’s him! I don’t know how but it’s Rich. He’s our bad guy!”

She played the video she got from the security cameras for him and sure enough, Rich lit his whole body up in flames in the middle of the gym. Jeremy still couldn’t believe it. Rich almost killed him. He almost killed Michael. He couldn’t deal with that thought right now though. He had to stop Rich first and figure out how to feel about it later. Bringing his eyes to lock with Christine’s in a sudden intensity, he asked, “Where can I find him?”

”I don’t know. I just know Jenna said she heard him say something about meeting someone at Tam Industries earlier today. Maybe he went there.”

He was already up and grabbing his suit when she stopped him, “Jeremy. Be safe. I’ve got your back just be smart about this.” 

They exchanged a smile before he jumped out the window, webbing off to a hopefully less aggressive encounter with his childhood bully.

***

Jeremy landed on an adjacent building to the lab and watched as Rich terrorized the surrounding civilians. 

“Remember Jeremy, you have to find a way to cool him off. If you get him inside the building, you could get the sprinklers to go off again.” Christine’s voice guided him through the speaker on his phone. She had insisted about two minutes after he left that he should keep her on speaker phone in case he needed help.

He took her advice and formed it into a haphazard plan. Pretty much the goal was just to piss him off enough to follow Jeremy inside and hope that the building was up to date. What could go wrong?

Jeremy dropped down to the ground, standing up in a stance way more confident than he felt. “Hey shortie, normally I’d say pick on someone your own size but I can see that would be hard for you. So, how bout you just try and fight me instead. Round two?”

Sure, it might not have been the best plan to draw upon the boy’s most touchy trait to get him to switch his focus, but Jeremy still felt a little smug being able to pick on Rich. The feeling, however, didn’t last when he saw Rich charge him.

A quick web up the side of the building kept him out of the flaming danger before he dropped back down to further taunt the boy, “It’s like you’re not even trying.” He knew that Rich was probably annoyed enough to continue his plan but he kept going.

Their game of cat-and-mouse went on like that for a couple minutes, with Christine adding in cautions about getting him too mad here and there, before Rich seemed to have enough. Jeremy had just brought himself back up the building when he looked and saw Rich right below him. As in, using his flame powers to propel himself up to him. So he could fly now. That would have be totally awesome except for the fact that he was coming straight for Jeremy.

The impact hit his chest before he had time to process any sort of defense. Rich had launched himself at the boy on the glass building without considering the consequences. Before they knew it, the boys were simultaneously falling into the lab and landing with a resounding thud.

Groaning, Jeremy tried to roll over and get up but was stopped by a boot resting on his chest. He didn’t even know how Rich managed to get up so fast. 

“Spiderman! What happened? Are you okay? You’ve gotta get out of there!” Christine’s cries to try and reach Jeremy and the ragged breathing from both boys echoed through the otherwise silent room. 

“Spidey’s a bit busy right now. Try again later,” Rich snarled as his boot dug in further with a sickening crunch.

Jeremy yowled in pain as stars began to flood his vision. This was it. He was going to die. He should’ve listened to Christine. Shouldn’t have drug out the taunting so long. He just wished he could apologize before Rich finally finished the job.

“JEREMY-” Christine screaming his name and Rich towering over him were the last things he remembered before allowing the incoming darkness to consume him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imma be real, I don’t know what I was doing in this chapter but it’s going. It’ll get better.  
> But as always, I love all your comments so any questions, comments, or concerns are welcomed <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys I’m crying. I can’t believe BMC is closing on Broadway :(  
> But at least my fic is still going :)

Jeremy was not expecting to wake up at all, much less waking up hearing the rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor and laying on the most comfortable bed he’d ever felt in his life. This was heaven wasn’t it? He was 100% dead and somehow in the afterlife. If he was dead, though, then why did his chest hurt so much? So not dead then. He must have been in the hospital. But he couldn’t be in the hospital because then his identity would be revealed. He jolted up from the bed, eyes shooting open and darting around the room. 

“Relax, Spiderman. Your mask is still on. If you would have taken a couple more seconds before panicking, you would have known that.” A calm, low voice spoke as the speaker placed his hands on Jeremy’s shoulders to ease him back down onto the bed. 

As he was being calmed, the young hero took in the man above him. He was a fairly attractive, dark-haired man with eyes just a touch too blue that pierced Jeremy’s own through his mask. He looked familiar in a way that he couldn’t quite remember but Jeremy knew he knew him from somewhere.

”Pardon my manners. Eric Tam. Owner of this building you and your fiery enemy almost destroyed.” Jeremy’s eyes widened inside the mask. That’s where he knew him from. From countless field trips to Tam Industries that started with the same monotonous speech from Dr. Tam. He couldn’t believe it was actually him though.

Finally aware that they had been standing in a growing silence, Jeremy replied, “Y-you’re the Dr. Tam? I can’t believe I’m a-actually talking to you. What happened? How did I get here? W-why didn’t you call the- the police on me?”

Dr. Tam sighed slightly irritatedly, “While you were getting beaten on by Rich, I believe you called him, I used a prototype cryo-gun to cool him down. The police came and arrested him and he is now being held in a special cell down at Middleborough Penitentiary. As for you, I brought you to our medical wing before police could start questioning you.” 

“But why? Why didn’t you just throw me to the p-police? Anyone else would’ve.” He could tell the older man was growing impatient but he couldn’t understand why he would save him. 

“Because, Spiderman, I have a proposition for you,” a sly grin slowly appeared on his face, “I watched you during that fight. You were terrible. Sloppy. You almost got yourself and everyone around you killed. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be here.” He paused for a moment to see Jeremy’s gaze drop to the floor, clearly agreeing with him. “So, I want to train you. Make you better. Clearly you need it. And I need to make sure this city of ours stays safe. So, we have a deal?” He outstretched a hand toward the boy.

Jeremy was stunned to say the least. He thought Dr. Tam would kick him out of the city, make him stop being Spiderman after what he did. Never did he think he would get an offer like this. He could be better. He could actually protect people. He could protect Michael. That was all he needed. He grabbed the man’s hand and shook it, “Deal.”

A shark-like grin emerged on Tam’s face. “Good. Now I have a few requests for this arrangement. Firstly, this needs to be a private training. I do not need unwanted attention for helping out a hero. You will come here and train everyday. I will make a schedule and send it to you tomorrow morning. And lastly, for this,” he paused briefly, “partnership to work, I am going to need to know who you are. Not just your superhero identity.”

Jeremy had been nodding in agreement with all of the so-called requests, feeling more as though they were demands, before freezing at his last request. Nobody knew his secret, well except Christine, so how could he just tell Dr. Tam, a relative stranger, his biggest secret. He would see him as a bigger failure than he already did.

But deep down, he knew the man was right. This wouldn’t be able to work unless he knew the truth. All Spiderman really was was a high school loser with one best friend and a makeshift sidekick. He couldn’t keep doing this alone anymore. He had no choice.

With a deep breath to do his best to calm himself, Jeremy reached up and pulled his mask off. He looked up at the impatient man with a sheepish grin, “My name’s Jeremy Heere and I think our training schedule might get in the way of my schoolwork.” He tried desperately to keep up his cocky Spiderman personality but failed miserably. 

Dr. Tam, however, did not look the least bit fazed that the city hero was a 17 year old boy. He simply nodded at him. “Well, Jeremy Heere, rest up. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. As I said before, I shall email you a daily schedule but, for now, plan on meeting me here at 5 o’clock tomorrow morning to begin. And do not be late.”

Jeremy simply stood up and grabbed his tattered mask, already dreading the early morning before mumbling a “yes, sir,” and walking out of the room. He was lucky if he could get out of bed before 7:40 on a good day, much less before 5.

”Oh and Jeremy, one last thing.” The boy paused and turned around, “While you were unconscious, I gave you an injection to enhance your rapid healing to save your life as well as potentially enhancing other abilities. I trust you will tell me if you notice any further changes.” The man said nonchalantly with an emotionless face, as if he were a doctor giving basic medications and not a scientist who just saved a superhero’s life with an apparently magical enhancing serum. 

“Thanks. I-I will.” He responded before leaving just as, if not more, confused as when he woke up. Still, Jeremy was more grateful and excited than anything about Dr. Tam taking him under his wing. How crazy was that. The city’s, maybe even country’s, leading scientist was going to take a chance on Jeremy, even knowing who he was.

Slipping his mask back on, Jeremy was grinning like crazy as he webbed his way back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lowkey, my storyline is based off The Flash, kinda, sorta...   
> but anyway, any comments, questions, concerns are welcome as per usual!   
> Hope you like ittttttttt


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I’m having a great time out here.

It was 5 in the morning. 5:07 to be exact. Great. Jeremy was late for his first day of training. It wasn’t his fault that he missed his first two alarms. Who even thinks it’s a good idea to be awake before 5. Jeremy was internally cursing Dr. Tam and himself as he rushed into the building, fully out of breath as he halted in front of the scientist. 

The frowning man looked down at him with crossed arms, “You’re late.” 

“I know. I just, I just woke up late. It w-won’t happen again. I promise.” 

A disapproving grunt was his response. “Clearly you need to work on keeping your promises as you promised you would be on time yesterday and here we are.” 

Jeremy tried to stutter out a response but couldn’t seem to get any words out. Instead, he decided to look down at his dirty shoes in comparison with the spotless white flooring. 

“Well, lucky for you, we can work on that. To start with, you will do twenty pushups for each minute you were late.”

“Twenty pushups each minute?” His voice cracked in shock. “I can barely do twenty pushups alone! Let alone a hundred and forty.” 

“Good to know you can count at least. Let’s do fifty pushups per minute just for that statement. Keep talking and you will bump it up to one hundred per minute.” While his comments were full of snark, Jeremy knew there was no room for negotiations on the matter. 

Sighing in defeat, he dropped to the ground and began his three hundred and fifty pushups, knowing it was better to just do them than argue more. Still, he made sure to shoot his mentor a defiant glare before beginning.

Standing there, arms crossed and feet tapping, Dr. Tam made sure to state everything wrong with Jeremy’s pushups, which was pretty much everything. In between critiques, he kept the slow count of pushups. 

This lasted until Jeremy finally collapsed on the forty-sixth pushup. Unable to do any more, he rolled on his back to take in the cool relief of the tile floor. 

“Jeremiah, need I remind you that you are not done with your pushups? The least you could do is make it to fifty.” He used his foot to nudge the boy back onto his stomach. 

Groaning, Jeremy shakily did four more pushups before rolling back onto his back and glaring at the man staring down at him. “There, fifty pushups. And it’s Jeremy. No one calls me Jeremiah.” 

“Well then, Jeremiah, how about we make an agreement. You finish your remaining three hundred pushups during today and learn to show up on time consistently and I will call you by your preferred name. Sound like a plan?” He stretched out his hand as both an offer for a truce and to help the boy up. “I will even give you a modified smart watch to help you keep track of your pushups as well as the time.” 

The hero thought it over briefly, making sure to make it look like he was thinking harder about it than he really was, and grabbed the outstretched hand in agreement. How hard could it be? Plus, he got a cool watch out of the deal so he had that going for him. After all, all of this was to help him and he did want to get better. This was a start. 

“Good. Now, to continue with our morning, I trust you checked your email for the itinerary I sent you, yes?” He looked for an acknowledgement from the shorter to no avail. In truth, Jeremy hadn’t opened his email account in weeks. “I see. Very well. Do make sure you check it before tonight’s training. For now, however, we will be going through your different current abilities and seeing how each can improve.” 

He led his mentee into a high-ceiling room with only a desk and two chairs in it and gestured for him to sit. Jeremy sat obediently and waited as Dr. Tam wordlessly opened a folder and began jotting down unknown notes.

"So, uh, Dr. Tam? I don't want to- to be rude but when are we going to start training? I-if you aren't planning on it, it's okay. I mean I'm okay with just sitting here and all if that's what you have planned and-" Jeremy rambled on before slowly fading his voice out as he got no sort of reaction from the man except a small eyebrow twitch. 

So, they continued to sit in silence with the scientist writing and the boy bouncing his leg nervously and impatiently. 

“Stop that.” Jeremy froze immediately and looked up at the man. “Your leg bouncing. Stop it. If you’re planning on being a hero, no one will feel safe with an anxious child swinging around.” The flat voice could have made the young hero shudder if he didn’t trust the man in front of him. 

Instead, he just pushed his leg down into the ground to keep it as steady as he could while he waited. 

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, though only about 20 minutes, Dr. Tam finally stood up, “Okay, Jeremiah, since you are clearly incapable of sitting still, we will move onto the next part of testing your abilities.” Jeremy was pretty sure he accidentally sighed in relief, earning a frown from the man. “I have crafted a new suit for you that will track your abilities and vitals to make sure you live up to your full potential.” 

Jeremy cautiously opened up a case placed in front of him. He couldn’t believe his eyes. A brand new Spiderman suit was on display and it looked more high tech than anything he could dream of wearing. 

“Is this- is this mine? Can I wear it?” 

A sigh and nod answered him, “Yes of course. I took into consideration your known abilities and included updated web shooters within it that will be able to create a better, more sustainable web fluid. I have also installed an earpiece so I will be able to help you through your various battles.” 

“This is amazing! Th-th- thank you! I promise I’ll take care of it.” He did mean his promise, however difficult he felt it would be to keep it. 

“Now, go put on the suit and give it a test run. We’ve got work to do.” And Jeremy could swear he saw a smirk flick across his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone was wondering, I love writing smart-assy comments in my stuff. Will be more.
> 
> As usual, any comments, questions, concerns welcomed!!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just saw the new Spiderman movie! I’m in love! Shocked! It was so good! I actually have inspiration to write this now??? Hell yeah. That movie just cured my writers block. Maybe

If Jeremy had to pick one thing to hate most about the day, just one thing out of the many things he could be mad about, it was himself. Himself and his stupid idea to agree to do this stupid training. It was all stupid. 

It was his first class of the day and Jeremy had been up for over 3 hours already. And he was falling asleep in class. Definitely not how he wanted the day to be going. He had already done another 50 pushups as soon as he got to school thanks to Dr. Tam’s repeated nagging through the watch he so generously gave Jeremy. Not that he wanted it anymore. All he wanted was to lay down and never move for the next week and a half. 

A book slammed on his table snapped Jeremy out of his day dreaming. 

“Mr. Heere. Would you like to explain to me and the rest of the class what we are doing today since you clearly already know what’s happening?” A few snickers were heard as Mr. Reyes questioned the drowsy teen. 

“I, uh, rehearsal?” 

“As a matter of fact, we were. We were discussing the importance of memorizing lines in theater and how, if some of our cast members do not have their lines memorized by tomorrow’s morning class period, they will be removed from this year’s play.” 

Jeremy got the hint. He’d been slacking lately. Christine had told him but he hadn’t done anything about it. Maybe after he got in the swing of this whole superhero thing he would be better. If he ever did. 

So, he simply nodded his head in a sort of understanding and left it hanging to stare down at his empty desk. Any sense of self-loathing he had rose quickly to his consciousness. 

“Psst. Jerry. Don’t worry about it.” Jeremy’s head shot over to where Brooke Lohst was trying to get his attention from behind. “Mr. Reyes can’t get rid of you. He’d have to put in Jake but he’s already covering Rich’s part.” She gave him, if he were honest, the most reassuring grin he’d ever seen. 

“Oh, uh. Thanks, Brooke.” 

“Of course! Besides, you’re like the best one here. Well except for Christine but you’re definitely the best guy.” 

Jeremy didn’t know what to say to that other than thank you so he just dorkily and very sheepishly grinned back at her until Chloe leaned her way in between the two. 

“I bet he’d even be okay with you missing rehearsals if you told him you were missing because you were working with Dr. Tam on some super secret project.” 

Jeremy’s eyes widened in shock, fear, maybe both. How did she know about that? Did that mean she knew he was Spiderman too? “I- what? I’m not working w-with him. Why would I be?” He internally groaned. Real smooth. 

“Really?” Her voice was sickeningly sweet, “well Jenna said that she saw you leaving Tam Industries this morning before school. Now why would you be there so early in the morning unless somehow you were working with him? Hm?” 

He was trapped. He had to tell her something. “Yeah. I, uh, got this internship. Thing. And I guess I just wanted to keep it a secret, you know?” It was somewhat the truth at least. 

“Oh my gosh! Jerry! That’s amazing!” Brooke excitedly, and maybe a little too loudly by the stern glare shot to her by Reyes, said as she pushed her way back into the conversation. 

“Yeah thanks again. And, um, it’s Jeremy.” Brooke’s smile faltered just a bit, learning she was calling him the wrong name, “but Jerry’s fine! I don’t mind at all. It’s kinda cool. Actually.” He couldn’t help but try and revive her smile. Thankfully, it worked. At least for a while. 

“Well, Jeremy, keep us updated. Brooke and I would love to know how it’s going.” Chloe ended the conversation with a smirk and toss of her hair as she focused Brooke back to whatever Reyes was ranting about. 

All Jeremy could do was look over at Christine as if she had any idea as to what just happened. Unfortunately, a raised, questioning eyebrow indicated she was just as confused. 

He did his best to focus through the rest of class until he felt a buzz of his watch. Groaning he raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom. 

Fifty less than mediocre pushups on the bathroom floor later, he slipped back into the hall to find his theatrical friend blocking his way. 

“Jeez what took you so long? I thought that was a signal to talk in the hall? I didn’t think you actually had to go to the bathroom!” 

“Sorry, Christine. I didn’t even think about it.” And he hadn’t. He was just too worried about the pushups he had to complete. 

Christine frowned at him, “Well can you at least tell me what’s up now that you’ve done your duty? You kind of disappeared after Saturday. I was really worried.” 

He should've known that was coming. He hadn’t told Christine anything to let her know he was okay. The only way she probably knew he was alive was that the news didn’t say he was dead. She had to have been freaking out all weekend. 

“Sorry. I just had a tough time healing after Saturday. Mostly spent my weekend asleep. But I’m fine now I promise.” Great. Another not exactly true statement to add to the list today. He should start keeping count of how many people he’d lied to this week. He had a feeling it would be more than he would like. 

“It’s fine. I figured. I was just worried. I’m glad you’re doing better though. But what were Brooke and Chloe talking to you about? Looked pretty interesting.” 

Jeremy couldn’t help but chuckle. “Chloe seemed to think I have an internship at the lab with Dr. Tam. So of course I said yes. I think Chloe might’ve been a little jealous” 

“Good. Chloe deserves to be jealous for once in her perfect, popular life.” She exaggerated a hair flip and mimicked Chloe’s walk down the hallway, giggling the whole way.

A comfortable silence fell between them before they both remembered they had a class to get back to. So they decided to walk back together, talking about this and that and everything unrelated to superheroes and danger until they reached the door. 

Christine turned to look at Jeremy, “You know you can tell me if something is ever wrong, right?” 

“Of course. I promise.” He sighed internally. Another lie to add to the list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I love writing dialogue? Yes. Do I love writing inner thoughts and actual action? Yes. Will I write a chapter with a balanced amount? Unclear.
> 
> As always, feel free to comment!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow guys sorry this took so long. My internship literally sucked all of the life out of me. I won't go into detail because, hey, who wants that. But like straight up, I was not having a good time. But we back, baby! Anyway, I promise the next chapter will be better. I just wanted to get this one out for you guys. Sorry again!!!!!

If there was one thing he never wanted to see up close again, it was the nasty bathroom floor. Didn't they ever clean this place? Apparently not. Jeremy had just finished his 250th push-up of the day and his arms were about to fall off. Was it from the push-ups? Maybe. Could it also be from some disease he got from this sticky, brown floor? Yes. It most definitely could. Probably not but you never know.

Scrubbing the grime off his now raw hands from being cleaned so regularly today, Jeremy could start to feel the feeling return to his arms. A nice tingling sensation spreading through them, he started to relax. He knew that this meant the pulsing pain was soon to follow but he couldn't help but enjoy the feeling while it lasted. The tingle soon spread up to the back of his neck as a warning and he jumped away from the sink he had been leaning on, ready for a fight.

As it turned out, he was just a little on edge from all the fighting the past week. It was only Michael strolling in. Of course, now he stopped in the middle of the doorway as he saw his best friend ready to straight up pounce on him. 

"Woah. Easy man. Expecting someone else to walk in, Jere? You've been in here for a while. Got worried, buddy."

He nervously laughed it off, relaxing his stance at the sight of his friend. "Sorry I just, you know, with everything that's happened with Rich. Can't be too careful, right?" 

Michael nodded in agreement. "Right. I mean with him still on the loose and all. I still can't believe the police haven’t caught him yet." 

"Wait. what?" Jeremy felt like his heart stopped. Didn't Dr. Tam tell him that they had Rich in a special cell? Maybe they didn't want anyone breaking him out so they made it up that he was still I captured. That had to be it, right? 

"Yeah it was crazy. Apparently he almost took out spidey but some random guy stepped in and stopped him but everyone gone before the police came. You know what this means, though, don't you? There's another hero! There has to be! I mean I always knew there was someone else behind the scenes but another superhero. It's awesome! I wonder what his name is!" 

"Michael, hey calm down. Ever think that maybe it was just some random person saving his life? Or that the police actually did show up and get him?" There had to be some way this all made sense. 

His friend only shook his head. "Nah, I read the files. No one was there when the police showed up. Just a bunch of broken stuff and some pretty upset scientists." 

Jeremy couldn't believe it. He compartmentalized it for later, seeing as he couldn't exactly tell Michael about it. 

"But anyways. I heard that you got some fancy internship at that lab. Which, JEREMY THAT'S AMAZING! Why didn't you tell me about it? You tell me everything." 

Not everything. And it seemed the list he told Michael about kept getting smaller and smaller. And now it was time to lie again. He didn't know how much more lying he could take in a day. "Oh yeah. It's just something my dad told me to sign up for before he left on his trip. It just started this weekend so most of it was just cleaning up all the mess. Real exciting stuff, let me tell ya." A grin spread across his face to sell the lie. He was getting a little worried how good he was at lying now. 

His friend's face lit up. It was then that Jeremy remembered why he was lying to his friend. To protect him. And keep him this happy. "Dude! That's amazing! Did you get to see the actual fight happen? Do you get to work on any super secret projects? You would tell me if you did, right? You totally would!" 

"No I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna end up as Dr. Tam's personal assistant. I don't know, I guess it'll just boost my resume or whatnot. But I promise I'll tell you if anything cool happens while I'm there." 

"You better. Dude I'm so going to live through you in this. This is the coolest thing to ever happen to me. I can't believe you get to work with THE Dr. Tam. You love that guy! What's he like?" He couldn't help but smile at the boy’s vicarious excitement. 

"You know, he's pretty much exactly how I imagined him. Maybe a little more stuck up but, hey, the guy owns like our whole city's tech so how could he not. Other than that, he's pretty cool. Like the epitome of coolness." He couldn't really figure out the best way to describe his mentor so that would have to do. 

"Duuuuude. Are you gonna get a picture with him? You should ask him for a selfie. That would be amazing. You've gotta do it." His brown eyes went wide just imagining how cool it would be to see that picture. 

Jeremy was going to respond with some comment about how the scientist wouldn't have time for random selfies but another tingle down his back cut off his thought process. Maybe the first one wasn't such a false alarm after all. Or maybe this one was just another paranoia alert. At least that's what he thought before a high pitched scream caught both of their attentions. They both flipped their focus on the other. Both wanting to go check it out without alerting the other to their plan. 

Jeremy ended up sputtering out an excuse first, "I, uh, have to go to, um, the bathroom. Another bathroom. This one's, uh, gross..." Internally, he was cringing. Externally, however, well, he was also cringing. Just a little less obviously as he headed toward the door. 

"Right. I should get back to, um, class. I guess." Michael ended up with a better excuse. Not that it mattered that his friend had better lying capabilities than him. That was for another time. 

Now, it was time to go be a superhero, however well he could. But this time, at least he would get to try out his new suit. And he'd have Dr. Tam in his ear to guide him if he needed it. How hard could it be? He already stopped Rich. Well at least he thought he did. Who could possibly be worse than him?

Another scream tore him out of his thoughts as he tore out of his clothes, suit already on underneath. He pulled on his mask and jumped out a window before webbing to the side of the school as another scream erupted from inside. It was time to be a hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment! More action packed chapters to come because, hey, I just remembered I have an actual outline for this thing. Yep it's a great time.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I'm not dead. And I'm back! I was having some major writer's block but we back baby!

He wasn’t going to deny it. A part of him was glad that these supervillains kept attacking the school. It was close. And he had a reason to not show up to class after it was over. But at the same time. Why? Now he has to worry about Michael getting too close. Again. As if last time wasn’t bad enough. But he won’t let it get that close again. He can’t.

Jeremy adjusted the new suit. He still wasn’t quite used to it yet but it would do. It was significantly better than his old suit anyway. 

He finally pinpointed where the screaming was but couldn’t figure out why. Nothing bad was happening even as the screams continued. He squinted to make out who was screaming and was shocked to see it was Jenna Rolan. She wasn’t really the type to be scared by much, considering how dark some of her topics of gossip got, so whatever she was scared by must be bad. 

Steeling himself to face whatever there was, he pushed off the wall to flip onto the pavement. Standing up with a confident facade by his mask, he looked at the girl. 

“Excuse me, miss. Is everything all right?” 

"Spiderman! You have to help me! Please!" She pleaded seemingly panicked as she was curled on the ground. 

He slowly walked toward her, scanning the area for a threat. A dull tingle at the base of his neck increased as he went so he knew something was there even if he couldn't find it. Did that mean they were invisible? How was he supposed to fight an invisible enemy? He could barely fight someone when he could see them. He'd figure something out though. How bad could it end up? 

Convinced his foe was invisible, he bent down to help Jenna up with one hand but kept his attention around them in anticipation. 

In hindsight, that was a mistake.

As soon as she grabbed his outstretched hand, every part of his body screamed to run. He yanked his hand away but it was too late. 

She grabbed his hand and looked up with what could only be described as a devious grin and screamed, knocking the boy off his feet with a wave of sound. 

Ears ringing, Jeremy struggled to get up and come to his senses, utterly failing due to a wave of nausea. The dizziness faded only faintly before he attempted again before accepting the fact that it wasn't going to happen. He would have to stall until the world stopped spinning. He looked up and saw that while he was struggling to recover, Jenna was monologuing and he was missing it. He could see she was getting irritated that she was being ignored even though she was the whole reason he wasn't listening. 

Her attention faded away from the boy and, upon inspection, focused on no one but herself and whatever was going on in her head. She was still talking, yes, but no one else was around to listen. Maybe this was a result of her powers. Having a louder voice in real life must mean that it's louder in her head too, right? Harder to decipher between the real voices and the ones in your head. That made sense. Even he had issues with that sometimes. 

He could start to hear again finally. He was glad his hearing wasn't completely ruined after that scream. Still, he didn't want her to know he was able to hear again so he could potentially learn at least a bit of what was going on. He had to really focus on watching her to pick up as much as he could. 

He watched and listened to the snippets of her internal conversation in increasing confusion. 

"-alive?-

-don't need him- 

-I'm the only one you need- 

-kill him right now! All you have to do is-" 

Jenna flinched and clutched her head before nodding to herself, "Yes, sir. I understand. I'll stick to the plan."

Jeremy's confusion turned to a panic as he listened. She was working for someone? Did they want him dead? Who were they? Why were they after him? He had to get out of here. Screw being a hero for once. Jeremy was scared out of his wits and he needed to calm down. He shot a web to pull himself up to the roof of the school before shakily trying to get away. A wave of dizziness once again swayed him until he stopped in the middle of the building. He could hear Jenna yelling for him, taunting him to come down and face her but he couldn't. He was shaking and was unable to do anything other than panic. 

He then heard something contrasting from the howling wind and villainous voices taunting him. A crackle of static and a calming voice easing into his ears. "Can you hear me? Jeremy you need to calm down. Breathe. Okay? You have to settle down for me."

It sounded like Dr. Tam but it couldn't be, could it? Jeremy searched around for his mentor but found he was nowhere to be seen. Still, he followed the voices instructions and struggled to take in shaky, but slowing breaths. 

"There we go. Your vitals were all over the place, kid. What happened?"

He finally felt calm enough to speak, "Dr. Tam..? How"

A sigh was followed by his answer, "I put an earpiece in your suit when I made it. As well as some other tech to monitor you out in the field. But back to my original question, what happened?"

He explained the situation as best he could, being sure to include the fact that his classmate was working for someone who was calling all the shots. 

"Okay. We will figure out who she is working for and what they want later but right now, you have to stop her."

"Dr. Tam I- I can't. I'm not good enough."

"You may be right. You may not be good enough on your own, but you have me here to help you. Now, let's get to work on stopping the villain and being a hero."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any comments, questions, concerns welcomed. Hope you liked it! Hopefully will be back on a regular posting schedule


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright I'm going to edit this chapter later because I really just wanted to get it out to you right now so I apologize. We been having a rough week

"Now, Jeremy, you must stop her from talking. That is the source of her power. If you can do that, you have a chance of beating her." The words of his mentor echoed in Jeremy's head. He had one chance to get it right. He couldn't mess up again.

"Alright I can do this," he shook himself, trying to shake off the jitters that had settled in his bones, "I'll go down there when she's not looking and web up her mouth. That'll stop her."

"That will not work. She has all of her focus on you right now. You need to find a way to distract her or you will be waiting for a distraction forever."

So, he scanned around the roof, trying to form an idea. Then, he saw it, the perfect distraction. Of course, why didn't he think of that before? There, in the far corner of the roof was a red frisbee, probably from years ago considering how faded it was but it would work. He ran and grabbed it before preparing to execute the plan. Vaguely, he heard Dr. Tam ask him to explain the plan but brushed him off, "It'll work. Trust me. It's gonna work." He couldn't really tell who the statement was aimed at, but it convinced the man to silence for the time being. 

One deep breath later, Jeremy ran to the edge of the building the girl was yelling up before launching the frisbee far out in front of him. He made sure to make enough noise running to catch her attention so her sight, and focus, followed the flying red disk. An earth-shattering scream erupted toward it just before the hero dove off the building, one hand shooting a web up to the building and the other aimed at Jenna. 

The webbing went taut as he glided to the side of the building. Quickly dropping down, he turned to face his enemy, prepared for the worst. However, he saw her struggling to rip off the clump of webs that sealed her mouth shut. Relaxing his stance, Jeremy swaggered over, continuing to ignore the voice of caution in his ear. "Y'know, normally I would never say this to a lady, but man am I glad you finally decided to shut up." 

This received a glare and a failed attempt at a reply as Jenna paused her struggle at freeing her mouth from the webbing. She lunged at him, rage fueling her. Using his spider-sense, he easily avoided, sliding to the side, "Listen, just give up, okay? You lost." He emphasized his point by shooting another web to effectively cuff her hands together. 

She looked like she was about to try and fight again but she suddenly froze, dropping to the ground and seizing. He squatted down next to her, panicking and reaching to tear the web off her mouth so she could breathe. 

"Don't do that, Jeremy," his mentor warned him, "This is probably a trap, this is what she wants. She will attack as soon as you take the webbing off."

Jeremy shook his head, this couldn't be a trap. No one could act that well. "You're wrong. I have to help her." However, he couldn't complete convince himself that his mentor was wrong so he decided to take precautions. Making sure to keep her on her side, he webbed her to the ground and went behind her before ripping off the covering. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting for her to be okay, she finally stopped seizing and relaxed into the ground. He let himself relax too just before all the alarms in his head went off. 

I seemed to happen in slow motion. He looked down to see her head facing him, opening her mouth to scream just before he threw a defensive punch to her face, knocking her out. He should've trusted Dr. Tam. He was right and he knew it.

"You can mope about it later, but right now the police are on their way and you need to get out of there. They will deal with her. Come to the lab." 

Jeremy numbly nodded before re-webbing her mouth, scrawling a quick note for the police, and making his escape. 

He didn't even realize he made it to the lab until Dr. Tam literally shook him out of his thoughts.

"As I was saying, you did pretty well out there today. A few improvements can be made, but with my help, you really stepped up and we saved the day. Good work. Now go take off the suit. There are a few tweaks to make now that it has been tested in action."

He didn't know what set him off, but Jeremy exploded, "So we're just going to act like nothing's wrong? Like there isn't some big villain after me for who knows what reason? Just take off the suit, Jeremy. Don't worry about it, Jeremy. I'll take care of everything, Jeremy." He mocked his mentor in anger, "I want to figure out why this is happening. Why me?" With that, the rage turned into a childlike fear as he hung his head.

"We will figure it out. Together. I promised you that earlier today. But right now you have to listen to me, and not just listen. You have to obey. All I want is to keep you and all your friends safe, and when you went rogue today, you put yourself and everyone else in a lot of danger. Remember, I am only here to help. Now promise me you will keep listening to me so that we can protect everyone together."

"I-I promise." His voice was barely a whisper.

"Good. Now go change out of the suit so I can give it some upgrades."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love you all! Thanks for all your support! Wouldn't have made it this far without you!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me actually looking at my outline to connect the story to previous chapters? It's more likely than you think.

"I'm telling you, Jere. I think Spiderman is working with someone new. I mean did you see his new suit? There's no way he could have made that on his own." Michael shoved his phone into his friend's face with a picture to prove his point. 

Jeremy nodded absentmindedly at his friend, his mind more focused on unraveling the growing mystery that was Dr. Eric Tam. "Whatever you say, man. But maybe he just made the new suit himself." 

"No way. His old suit was legitimately a sweatshirt. There's no way he would be able to go from that to his new one. I bet it's someone super high tech and cool. Someone who has access to a lab or something." He gasped in an apparent, half-joking revelation, "What if it's someone from Tam Industries?"

That snapped Jeremy from his thoughts, "What? Dude do you know how crazy you sound? Why would any of them even want to work with him? Isn't he starting to be called the Middleborough Menace? Who would want to be associated with that?" He hoped that would throw his friend off the trail, knowing he would have to think of a more permanent answer before Michael dug too deep into Spiderman's new help.

Unfortunately, his outburst didn't have quite the effect he was hoping for. Instead of his friend agreeing with the statement and moving on, Michael was taken aback and couldn't quite determine whether to be surprised or mad at the statement. Of course, as was starting to become a trend with the two, anger won the battle. "Pfft. Do you actually believe the Bugle when they call him that? I bet you're just jealous of him because, for someone who claims to be against him, you know an awful lot about him. Or maybe it's that you still don't want me to write my blog about him." He didn't fail to notice how Jeremy's eyes dropped to his hands, unable to make eye contact. Deep down, he knew his friend didn't mean any harm, but he kept going. "Well guess what, Jeremy, you can't stop me. I don't care if it's dangerous. Please, don't try and stop me anymore. Now, there's something I've got to do." With that, Michael stood up and turned to go, a stupid, rebellious plan forming in his head. He heard his friend apologize but knew if he turned around, he would lose the nerve to follow through in his plan, so he kept walking. 

His apologetic and increasingly worried friend stealthily trailed behind, a bad feeling sitting in his stomach. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Michael was an idiot. He was the biggest idiot in the universe. Somehow, though, Jeremy couldn't be mad at him. If it wasn't for him, Michael wouldn't be in an alley picking a fight with the two biggest thugs he could find. Still an idiot though.

It didn't take long before the spat escalated and his friend was in danger. Cornered in an alley with nowhere to go. Thank goodness Jeremy had his suit on under his clothes. He pulled the mask on before descending on a web down into the alley behind the thugs. "Isn't there a better use of your time than picking fights with teenagers in an alley?" The snarky comment rolled off his tongue as he dropped to the ground. "I mean, if you want to fight someone in red, how about me instead?" 

Thankfully, the men knew what was good for them and took off running without a second thought, leaving the two boys alone. 

"You want to tell me what you were doing there? Do you have a death wish or something?" Jeremy made sure to keep his voice as low as possible to avoid recognition. 

"No, I uh I wanted to see you." The boy paused for a second, trying to calm himself down. Being almost pummeled by thugs and then getting to talk to Spiderman was enough to throw anyone into shock. After a couple breaths, he continued, "No wait, that sounds weird. What I meant was that I wanted to interview you and, since I don't have your number, I figured this was the best way." A sheepish smile formed on his face.

"An interview? Really? Aren't you a little young to be a journalist?" 

"Yeah, well no, I write a blog. But anyway, I was wondering if I could get a little insight into your life as a hero." Michael pulled out his phone, ready to take notes. 

Jeremy couldn't help but sigh and shake his head. Of course this is what his friend wanted. He ran a hand over his mask-covered face. "Listen kid, I recognize you from a few of my fights. Hell, I even remember you saving my life in the school not long ago, but you've got to learn when to stop. I'm sure there are people out there that care for you, so you have to think about them and keep yourself safe. Having an interview with me is going to make you a target and I can't let that happen, okay? Your blog is a big enough target as it is." He hoped his point would finally come across.

Of course, he could never be that lucky. "You know, that's exactly what my friend said. I'm not going to stop though. You deserve more than all the negative things everyone is saying. Let me do this interview so I can at least show my friend how good you are. Please?" 

Oh god, he was giving him the puppy eyes. His best friend in the whole world thought that puppy eyes would be able to break Spiderman and, dang it, he was right. He sighed in surrender and gestured for Michael to start, knowing he would have to give as vague of answers as possible. 

"Okay! So let's start off with an easy one. How did you get your powers?"

"I can't tell you that. I can't tell you much about my backstory. Can't let any bad guys know too much, you know. This suit doesn't hide my identity for no reason."

The rest of the interview continued much in the same way, most of the questions being unanswered and the rest were pretty vague.

"Alright, last question. Why you do this? There's got to be some reason you decided to become a superhero with these powers, right?"

He thought back for a moment before answering. "For a while, I didn't want anyone to know about these powers but, I guess, when you can do the things that I can, but you don't, and then bad things happen, they happen because of you. I just want to make the city a better place."

Michael was taken aback by how genuine he was compared to the cocky attitude he was known for before jotting it down quickly. "Well thank you for letting me interview you and thank you for everything you do. I don't know where we would be without you." 

Jeremy nodded back, "Of course. And, hey, next time you want to talk, try and find a better way than getting beat up in an alley." Just like that, the facade he let slide was back up and he webbed up to the top of the building and back into the city. His whole plan of keeping Michael out of the middle of this was falling apart and he didn't know how to stop it. At least he was still oblivious for now. He just hoped it would last long enough for Jeremy to figure out what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love all your comments! Thanks for actually liking what I write! <3


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. Me posting two chapters in a week? Seems fake. But surprise!

Jeremy finally got to go to play rehearsal. He finally had a day where no superpowered villain was breaking into the school and he was planning on enjoying it. Dr. Tam had given him the night off unless something big came up and he was going to take advantage of it. 

He walked into the theatre room and dropped into the chair next to Christine, quickly saying hi before pulling out his script. His greeting, however, was returned with nothing more than silence. He should have expected it. He did practically cut her out of her "man-in-the-chair" role and ignore her. She had every right to be mad. He'd have to find a way to make it up to her. But for now, he had to get back on her good side, because a mad Christine was not a good Christine.

"Christiiiiiiine. Please don't be mad at me." Nice start, Jeremy. Real smooth. He leaned over to her and put his head on her shoulder, causing her to shift and turn further away. "I'm sorry, Chris. You know I'm sorry."

With a huff, she turned to face him. "I know you're sorry. You're always sorry. But I-" She paused to see there were people potentially listening before dropping her voice, "we'll talk about this later." 

He wanted to continue but he knew she was right. Mr. Reyes strolled into the room, hot pocket in hand, and, with that, rehearsal began. Thankfully, Jeremy and most of the rest of the cast were off-book so rehearsal went fairly smooth. Other than his scenes with Christine, that is. Of course, being the two leads in the zombie thriller play, most of their scenes were together. Mr. Reyes ended up dismissing rehearsal half an hour early due to a 'lack of enthusiasm' from the cast. Pretty much, Christine wasn't into it so everyone else followed suit. 

Everyone dispersed pretty quickly after, leaving just the pair to talk. Jeremy waited for Christine to start, knowing there was nothing he could really say at this point to help the situation. It didn't take long.

"I'm not mad, Jeremy. I'm worried about you! I don't know what's going on with you but I know that it can't be good. You can't cut yourself off from everyone like this again. Do you even remember why I started being your guy-in-the-chair? Probably not. You almost died, Jeremy! You do dumb stuff when you do this alone. I don't know why you're trying it again, but I can't let you. I just want to know why. Why have you been going out and doing it all alone recently? Where did you get that new suit? Why don't I know about any of it?" As hard as she tried to keep her voice even and calm, it wasn't hard to tell she was freaking out.

He sighed in defeat, knowing he couldn’t keep it a secret any longer. In his head, he could practically hear the wary voice of Dr. Tam urging against telling her but he ignored it. He was just being overly worried. Christine didn’t tell anyone his secret so why would she start now? He could do this. 

He quickly, but not quickly enough, realized he had been sitting there silently trying to debate what to do before completely deciding and looking up to her eyes, “I, uh, I, oh gosh, w- where do I begin...?” He took a steadying breath before continuing, “I kind of, s- sort of met Dr. Tam an- and he, um, started training me. I guess?” 

Christine looked shocked, to say the least. Shocked and a little bit confused. But she didn’t say anything, or maybe she just couldn’t say anything. 

“I really wanted to tell you, I did. But I didn’t want you to feel like you were being replaced b-because I would never replace you. Ever. I just figured I needed some extra training since neither of us really know what we’re doing…” 

She finally found her voice, apparently, and was ready to interrogate him, “But how did he even know you were Spiderman? Does he know your secret identity? What’s he like? That’s the Tam Internship?”

He, of course, went on to explain the whole story, leaving out a few parts, mainly how strict he was and all the pushups and scolding that was done. He had to admit, it felt good to tell her about it and get at least one lie off his chest. 

Christine, however, didn’t look convinced. “So you just trusted him? Just like that? Jeremy, I get he saved your life and all, but doesn’t it all sound a little too good to be true? I mean, we’re talking about Dr. Tam here. Your idol just comes along and decides to train you, just like that? No hidden agenda or payment necessary?” 

While he would internally admit she had a point, Jeremy still argued back to her, “Why can’t you just believe me? He gave me a suit, Christine. He’s been teaching me to fight so I can actually protect the city instead of getting my butt kicked every other night. So what if he isn’t the most open guy and might have some sort of payback in the future. Isn’t keeping everyone safe worth it? Isn’t that what heroes do?” 

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Just… promise me you’ll be careful around him, Jeremy. I don’t want you getting hurt.” She sadly smiled at him, knowing she wasn’t going to win this fight. Nonetheless, she was still going into check into the scientist. It didn’t matter how well known he was, she wanted to make sure her friend was safe. 

He nodded, agreeing, “I promise, Chris. I’ll be careful. Now, there’s something else I should probably tell you… I kind of had an interview with Michael. As Spiderman.”

“Jeremy Heere you did WHAT?! I thought you wanted to keep Michael out of this, not drag him even deeper. Jeez, do you know what could happen? How much danger he could be in, now? Don’t yo-”

He cut her off, gesturing for her to calm down and let him explain himself, “That was the plan, yes. Until he literally picked a fight with two guys in an alley just to talk to me.” She frowned at him. “I know, I know it isn’t ideal but if I just give him an interview every once in a while, I don’t know, maybe he’ll stop running into danger every chance he gets. It’s the best option here. For now at least.” 

She shook her head, formulating her thoughts and trying to process everything. “Jeremiah Heere, I am going to ask you this one more time. When are you going to tell him your secret? One day soon, whether you tell him or not, he’s gonna find out.” 

“Soon. I promise. I just, I’ve got to figure out this whole mess with Jenna and Rich first and then I promise I’ll tell him. It’s just, it's not the right time. Not yet.” 

She nodded in understanding, pulling him into a hug, knowing how hard it must be for her friend. “Just keep me in the loop, okay? This will all work out soon. I know it.” With that, she gave him a smile and they said their goodbyes, both heading home with a little weight off their chests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any questions, comments, or concerns are welcomed! Love hearing all your thoughts!!! Y'all are the best


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, guys, it's been a shitshow these past few months. But I'm back, I made some changes to the plan of this story so we'll get into some action here in the next couple chapters. I'm finally motivated again to keep going so we'll see how this goes. Also I know I know I know this is kind of slow but I had to get it back on track so sorryyyyy. I promise it will be better

It had been a pretty calm week and Jeremy had to admit he was glad. It had been a while since he had any sort of normalcy in his life again. Of course, this was a new normal, but he didn't really mind. Sure, most people would think normal life was high school with drama practice and hanging out with his best friend occasionally, but his normal wasn't far off. It just had a little superhero extracurricular with it. After his interview with Michael, his best friend had been a little safer about his blogging and spiderman hunting habits. Not much, but Jeremy had to take what he could get. Christine was still getting some man in the chair time. He made sure to do at least an hour of patrolling a night with her to help both her and the city. An increasingly large amount of his time, though, was spent with Dr. Tam in the lab. It was like he was living his dream. Jeremy still didn't believe it was real. Well, you know, until the unending punishment pushups and scoldings were thrown at him by his mentor. At this point, though, he would take whatever as long as he could keep getting better at saving people.

In the little free time he had, Jeremy had been looking into who Jenna was working for but was getting absolutely nowhere. He didn't even know where to start looking. It's not like he could just look them up on the internet or anything. So, he did what, in hindsight, was a bad decision. During his Friday morning training session, Jeremy decided to ask Dr. Tam for help.

After his morning workout which was, surprisingly, becoming pretty easy after so many reps, he had finally built up enough courage. "Um, Dr. Tam?" he started quietly, waiting for his mentor's acknowledgment before continuing. "I w-was wondering if, well, if you would help me look into trying to figure out who Jenna was talking to and working with." Had his eyes not been on his feet, he would have seen the exasperated look being given. Not that he couldn't feel it. No, he could always feel when he was about to get a lecture. The sigh he heard only confirmed it.

"Jeremy, we have talked about this. I told you I would look into it and I have done as I promised. There is nothing I can find about whoever it is. Have you ever considered that the conversation you heard her have was simply an effect of her own powers? She may have a schizophrenic reaction to whatever caused her powers. At this point it does seem like the most logical answer, does it not?" 

He had to admit, it did make sense. Hadn't he thought that before hearing what she said? But it still didn't feel right. Call it his spider-sense, but there had to be more to the story. He knew Dr. Tam wouldn't budge from his viewpoint though, so he would have to figure this out himself. Still, he didn't want his mentor knowing what he was up to so he muttered and agreement and promised he would let the man continue his research all the while forming a plan of his own.

***

The whole school day, Jeremy's plan was coming together. He couldn't ask Christine to look into it without having to explain why Dr. Tam wasn't helping. That would only make her more suspicious than she already was. He started his search, then, by talking to Chloe and Brooke which, in hindsight, wasn't very well thought out.

He walked into his math class shared with the two and, in his absent-mindedness, ran directly into Brooke. He let out a small yelp before deciding to start his investigation, "Oh. Hi. Brooke. I was, uh, w-wondering if, maybe, you wanted to-" 

Brooke pressed her index finger to his mouth to shush him, "Oh Jeremy. I already know what you're going to say."

"Y-you do?"

"-and of course. Meet me on the bleachers behind the school tomorrow, kay?" Her finger fell from his face and her hand rested on his shoulder.

He nodded slightly before pausing, "Oh but I'm supposed to meet my friend, Michael, tomorrow." 

"Friday then. Don't forget." She turned and went to the other side of the room, hearing Chloe calling for her, but turned around to wave bye with a small blush on her cheeks.

 

It didn't hit him until the middle of history class that he just agreed to a date instead of an interview about the most recent student villains. He wasn't sure why he was dreading it so much.

 

By the time play rehearsal started, Jeremy's plan for investigation was complete. Sure, there were a few small bumps along the way, the biggest being his accidental date agreement, but his revised plan would work. It had to. 

It would at least turn out better than the play. With two students of the already lacking cast gone, the show was falling apart. Mr. Reyes had taken to understudy Rich's part and Jenna's was completely thrown out. Needless to say, it was turning into a real midsummer's nightmare. This rehearsal, however, went as smoothly as it could given the circumstances and Jeremy was out the door as fast as he could get there. He threw on his suit and sent an anonymous tip to his favorite spider-blogger and waited in the last alleyway they met face-to-mask for his friend. 

This was 100% a bad idea. Why did he think this was a good idea? Dragging Michael into this could in no way, shape, or form end well. Why was he here, hanging upside down against a building? If he left now, Michael would never know. 

Unfortunately, his frantic escape plan was cut short as a familiar red hoodie crept into the alley, "Hello? Anyone there? I got this random message saying someone has information for me and-" His nervous rambling was stopped as Jeremy dropped down from his web and landed directly in front of his friend. "Oh my god, it's you. Of course, it's you. I should have known. I, wait wait wait. Sorry. I should stop, shouldn't I?" 

Jeremy couldn't help but smile as he listened to him talk. He could sit and listen to him all day. "No, no you're fine. Keep-" He internally scolded himself. He had to be a superhero right now, not a friend. "Well, actually I've got a small favor to ask. I need some help looking into a couple of attacks that happened recently. I know it's a lot to ask but I-I don't know many journalists and-" he noticed he was fidgeting and instantly straightened himself back up, "I figured if I could ask anyone to help me out with this it would be you."

There were few times that Jeremy saw his player 2 speechless, but here he stood, mouth hanging open without a coherent thought in his mind. It took a solid minute of standing there in a growing silence before Michael could finally find his voice. "So you want me to be like your sidekick? Dude this is totally awesome!"

"Not sidekick exactly. I just need someone to do a little investigating for me. Not a sidekick. That's too dangerous for you."

"Riiight. Not a sidekick. Just someone who helps the hero solve the case. Totally not a sidekick." Michael gave a smirk which, had it not been for the mask, would have been returned with rolled eyes. "But anyway, what do you need help finding out that you can't yourself. I'm sure you have plenty more resources than I do."

"You'd sure think so," Jeremy mumbled to himself before focusing back on Michael. "The two students from your school who went rogue recently. I think they're working for someone and I need you to ask around and see if anyone else might know something about it. But you have to promise me you won't tell anyone else about this. Especially no posting about it on your blog, got it?" 

Michael nodded, "Of course. Your secret is safe with me. I'll figure this out for you, I promise. But how am I supposed to let you know what I find out?"

The hero tossed him a cell phone, "Here. Use this. I've got a burner phone with its number plugged into that one so call me if you need me. Or text. Just keep out of trouble and, for my sanity, don't run into any more danger. It's hard enough to worry about a whole city without having to worry about you getting hurt." With a blush from the slip of his tongue hidden by the mask, Jeremy webbed out of the alley, leaving his best friend once again speechless and staring at the phone with a single contact that was resting in his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! It's only going to get better from here!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo I looked at my outline for this and the end of it is a mess so guess who rewrote their entire outline to make things cohesive... meeee. It's fine. We're fine. Please someone love me.

Jeremy had been working really hard lately and he needed a break. Dr. Tam was pushing him to get better faster and was getting less and less patient as time went on. Their morning training was a prime example. 

 

"Jeremy, we have worked on this for hours. You should be able to do it by this point. Run it again until you get it right." His mentor scolded, glancing up only briefly before returning to the notes he was writing. 

 

The young hero just sighed and put his blindfold back on, waiting for the exercise to begin again. The mentor was determined to improve his ability to sense danger by removing his sight from the equation and having the boy face his robotic rivals blindfolded. Needless to say, it was not going too well. His body was littered with bruises from the countless hits and, even if his senses were improving, he was too tired to react quickly enough. Still, he'd keep going as long as he was told to. He didn't want a repeat of the last time he complained about something like this. 

 

Jeremy stood in the center of the room and listened to the robot whirring back to life. He tried to hone his senses in on it and managed to dodge a few attacks this time. However, he felt the last, familiar tingle at the base of his neck and reacted a second too late. Another robot behind him threw the boy into the wall. Was it just him or were these attacks getting more aggressive? 

 

He would dwell on that later. Right now, he just stood back up, facing where he figured the practice robots were to keep practicing until he got to leave for school. Man, he never thought he would actually be excited to go to school. Guess there was a first for everything. Needless to say, his estimate on where the bots were was grossly incorrect. Jeremy ended up getting a metal hand to his face and dropped back to the ground. He took his blindfold off in defeat just in time to move out of the way of the robot to attack again, clearly not stopping soon. He was tired, though, and didn’t feel like getting beat up any worse than he already had. Screw what Dr. Tam would say. He needed to be done. 

 

Jeremy webbed up the machine to easily stop any future attacks and flipped the switch to turn it off. He scooped up the discarded blindfold and stalked over to his clearly annoyed mentor. He, with a little more force than intended, tossed the fabric at the man, “This isn’t working. Whatever you’re expecting me to do, I can’t.” 

 

His mentor stayed silent for a moment, only giving the teen an incredulous look. Finally, he simply gave a terse nod and went back to writing notes with a hmph. 

 

This was very much not what Jeremy expected. He was expecting a scolding, reprimanding comeback along the lines of ‘you are not trying hard enough’ or ‘do it again’ or just something. This was almost worse. The disappointing silence was weighing on him. “That’s it? You’re not going to say anything or tell me what I did wrong? Nothing?” Sure, he may have been trying to provoke a response out of his mentor, but who could blame him? Silence was not the older man’s forte. Provoking was not the teen’s forte either, however.

 

When the man finally did speak, his voice was as smooth as a mirrored lake, no emotion betrayed. “You said you could not do it. I will not spend any more time training someone who is not willing to reach their full potential. Now,” he looked up from his notebook, emphatically closing the cover, “your training for the day is over. If you wish to continue in the future, I expect you to have a better attitude toward your training exercises and if I  _ ever _ hear you say you cannot do something, our partnership will be terminated. Understood?” 

 

Jeremy tried to swallow the knot in his throat as he nodded. He should’ve just left with the silence. Man, he thought that was bad. This was ten times worse. He knew the man was right, though.

 

“Good. Now I expect you to be here at five tomorrow morning as usual,” he held up a hand to stop the potential argument due to tomorrow being a Saturday, “we will be doing a full day of training to make up for this wasted session. Do not be late.” With that, Dr. Tam turned and walked away, effectively ending the conversation and training for the morning. 

 

The hero figured there was no reason to stay so he grabbed his belongings and quietly left for school. He was pretty quiet during the whole day, pretty much just aching to go home and sleep away the bruises from the morning before his training tomorrow. However, his dream was quickly dashed as he walked home from school. His earbuds got ripped from his ears on one side as an arm was slung over his shoulders on his other side. He whipped around, ready to fight whoever before he saw Christine and Michael standing there, wide-eyed before they burst into laughter. 

 

Through his laughter, Jeremy’s player 1 pointed and continued his laughter, “you should see your face right now. You look ridiculous.”

 

He wasn’t wrong. Jeremy looked about as confused as a deer in headlights, about ready to bolt given the chance. “W-what are you guys doing?”

 

Christine, having finally composed herself, spoke up, “You looked like you were having a rough day so we thought we’d hang out for a bit! I did tell him scaring you like that wasn’t a good idea, though.” She gave him an understanding look. 

 

“Yeah, man. Did you think you could sneak away and spend  _ another _ weekend alone without me?” He grabbed Jeremy, nearly dragging him back to walking on the sidewalk towards his house, “Now let’s go stuff ourselves full of junk food and show Christine how we game, kay?”

 

A smile graced the hero’s lips. Just one night wouldn’t hurt. He’d still have to make it to training in the morning, yes, but maybe a night with his best friends was just what he needed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE bout to get action-packed up in here. maybe some fluff here and there. Anyway, pls leave a comment if you want! Love them and you all. You're the best


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